


Cabin Fever

by taketheblanket



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Bottom Gladiolus Amicitia, Bottom Noctis Lucis Caelum, Coach/Student Relationship, Gladnoct Week, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Size Difference, Snowed In, Top Gladio, Top Noct, brotherhood era, so much fluffy smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 13:47:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12889188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taketheblanket/pseuds/taketheblanket
Summary: Halfway through the hike to the car, Noct loses his footing and falls. When the weather turns bad, the Shield and his injured Prince take shelter in a nearby cabin. What begins as just another Saturday morning fishing transform into a week snowed-in with nothing to do...buteach other, that is.





	Cabin Fever

A cold breeze pulls Gladio from his story. He holds his place with a finger and glances at the sky. For a few moments, he watches the dark grey clouds that lurk beyond the mountaintops, unable to process what he’s seeing as they slowly swallow blue. He turns to look at Noct, who is knee deep in the lake, the rippling green water licking up the side of his rubber boots as the wind disturbs the surface. 

“Hey Noct,” Gladio says, rising from his seat at the shore. He folds his novel into his back pocket and hoists Noct’s cooler, laden with today’s catches. “I don’t think this weather is gonna hold.” 

The Prince lifts his face to frown at the sky. 

“We oughta hustle,” Gladio says, shrugging into his jacket, the temperature plummeting rapidly. It took them more than an hour of cautiously picking their way through jagged rocks to hike here from where they left the car. He warily eyes the path.

-

“I’m fr-freezing!” Noct says, his teeth chattering. 

“Keep moving and you’ll warm up,” Gladio tells him, though he is shaking himself. Twenty minutes into their hike downhill and the sky opens up, unleashing a blanket of chilling rain they hadn’t dressed for. Their clothes are long soaked through, and the path is even slower-going, visibility poor and the rocks growing dangerously wet. 

-

Gladio sees Noct lose his footing before he even begins to fall, but he does not get to him in time, and has to watch as Noctis goes tumbling into the rock. He has his tackle box in one arm and does not release it to catch himself. The scream of pain he releases awakens a such a primal desire to protect him that Gladio swears he can feel his tattoos peel away from his skin, unfurl for flight. 

He rushes to him, to where he lies crumpled over himself in the mud, clutching his left leg at the calf. 

“It’s broken!” he cries. 

“Shit, Noct.” 

Gladio puts a hand out to squeeze Noct’s shoulder. The Prince hisses in pain. They (stupidly) left their potions in the car. They’ve got at least another hour of hiking to go, especially in this weather. Gladio pulls his ballcap off and hands the brim to Noct. 

“Bite on this. I’m gonna pick you up and it’s gonna hurt.” 

Noct cringes, but obeys. Gladio grabs him by the upper arm and hoists Noct onto his back, has to ignore his muffled shouts of discomfort as he positions him, squats to lift the cooler, tackle box and Noct’s rod from the muddy embankment. The Prince sighs raggedly and sweeps the items into his rarely used armiger before wrapping his arms snugly around his shoulders. The Shield grunts gratefully, and brings his hands to hold him up beneath his thighs. He presses his face against his neck and Gladio tries his best to protect the damaged left leg as he begins to navigate his way down the rocky slope once more. 

-

“The fuck did this _come_ from?” Noct groans, pressing cold wet fingers beneath the neck of Gladio’s shirt, seeking any kind of warmth where he still clings to him. 

“No clue,” Gladio grumbles, pausing temporarily beneath the sorry shelter of a battered tree. The sky has long gone gray and the rain is coming down in icy sheets. Not only is it hard to see and too slippery to take anything but the smallest of steps, but Gladio’s hands are so numb he’s afraid he’s going to drop the Prince and break his other leg too. He squints out into the wilderness, shakes his head in respectful disbelief at Mother Nature, squeezing his hands around Noct’s thighs to make sure he’s still holding tight. 

And then in the distance, a solid wall seems to suddenly appear in the raging rain. It is the outline of a structure, unmoving in the otherwise frantic landscape of wind and trees. 

“Is that the cabin we passed on the way up?” Gladio asks aloud, already moving towards it. 

“Dunno,” Noct says. “Can’t see.” 

He sounds calm. He doesn’t sound like he’s in pain, and neither of those facts are comforting, because although he may not realize it, Noctis is trembling violently in his arms. 

Gladio needs to get him inside. 

-

He releases Noct with one hand so he may try the door knob, releases a grateful sigh when it gives. 

The door gives way to a compact split-level cabin. The bottom floor is a single room, divided between a bare bones kitchen and a living area with a single couch. There are stairs in the back that probably lead to a bedroom, but Gladio will have to check later. The cabin doesn’t appear to be anyone’s permanent residence, and tonight it will be their saving grace. 

He plops the wet Prince onto the kitchen counter. 

“Get undressed.” 

 

-

“It’s not broken,” Gladio says into the phone, squatting before Noct where his legs dangle off the kitchen counter. His left ankle is swollen to nearly double the size, scraped and bloody and bruising blue. “He’s real banged up though.” 

Gladio’s father mumbles through the phone, signal weak through the storm. 

“We’ll spend the night,” he says. “Head home when the weather clears up tomorrow.” 

Gladio stands up and gives Noct a small smile. Now that he’s no longer numb, his leg is bothering him again and he doesn’t return the gesture. 

“Are you sure it’s not broken?” Noct asks. 

“It’s not broken,” Gladio says. “Sorry, no, I was talkin’ to Noct. Yeah, okay. Call ya tomorrow.” 

He pockets his phone. 

Noct watches him from the counter while Gladio takes stock of their surroundings. He stuffs the fireplace with logs and Noct lights it from the kitchen with a well-aimed burst of flames. The electricity doesn’t work but the freezer is still frozen, and Gladio finds a pizza to prop beside the fire, a bag of peas to give to Noct. In the washroom under the stairs he finds an elastic bandage for his ankle. In the living room cupboard, he finds a handle of whiskey. 

Noct watches him from the kitchen counter, wearing nothing but his underwear and his rain-drenched hair, wrapped in a thick woolen blanket. 

“Pretty much got everything here two guys could need!” Gladio says cheerfully. 

“Did you find any potions?” Noct asks. 

“Nope, but I’ve got something just as good,” Gladio says, producing the bottle of liquor. 

Noct raises his eyebrows in intrigue. 

-

 

Gladio sets Noct up on the couch in front of the fireplace, tucked carefully beneath his blanket, his ankle wrapped and elevated, the bag of frozen peas resting atop his foot. He lays their clothes over chairs and points them towards the heat, but he doubts they’ll be dry before morning, so he sits himself close to the fire, let the crackling logs warm his bare skin. They eat pizza, and they drink. 

Despite having little experience with alcohol, the just-eighteen year old Prince drinks straight from the bottle and swallows with confidence. _Like a true soldier_ , Gladio thinks with pride. 

-

“I wanna tell you something,” Noct says, in the particular way only a drunk person can say it. “Listen to me.”

“I’m listening,” Gladio says, taking the bottle of whiskey from his liege and replacing it with a glass of water. 

“I really appreciate that you come fishing with me. No one else will come fishing with me.” 

“I have to come with you,” Gladio says pointedly, gesturing at Noct’s sprained ankle. “You need protection.” 

Noct scoffs in dramatic offense. 

“You like coming with me,” he says, setting the water on the ground and laying back on the couch. “You’d come with me even if you weren’t my Shield.” 

“We probably wouldn’t know each other if I weren’t your Shield,” Gladio says, alcohol bitter on his tongue as he drinks from the bottle. 

Noct opens his eyes and glares at him. 

“I’m trying to be nice,” he says. 

“Sorry,” Gladio frowns. “Imma little drunk.” 

“Me too,” Noct says. “You’re a sad drunk?”

“Nah,” Gladio replies. “Introspective.” 

He turns and looks out the window, watches the wind whip rain against the glass. He can feel Noct’s eyes on him, tracing the length of the recently healed wound on the left side of his face. 

“What are you thinking about?” Noct asks. 

“That I should have caught you.”

“Stay closer, next time,” he suggests. 

Gladio chuckles. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” 

-

“I’m cold,” Noctis says. 

Gladio gives the whiskey to Noct to hold while he moves the entire couch closer to the fireplace for him. Noctis rolls his eyes playfully at the display of strength, lips still wrapped around the mouth of the bottle. 

“Better?” Gladio grins. 

“Yeah.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Nah,” he says, wiggling the bottle at Gladio. 

“Good.”

After a moment of reflection, the Prince speaks again, alcohol loosening his tongue.

“Woulda died today, had I come alone.” 

“You wouldn’t have _died_. And you would have never been allowed to come up here alone.” 

“The Shield to the Prince,” Noctis murmurs to himself.

“The Shield to the _Chosen One_ ,” Gladio elaborates. 

“What does it even mean, to be the Chosen One?” he laments. 

“No idea, Noct. You’re gonna have to figure that out for yourself.” 

“I hate being a Prince. Do you hate being a Shield?”

“No, I don’t.” 

Noct is watching him as he settles onto the floor in front of the fire and leans back against the couch. Gladio can see in his peripheral that Noct is looking at his scar again, his eyes tracking it from hairline to jaw. He meets Gladio’s eyes when he’s caught looking, and the Shield notes with appreciation that, drunk, the Prince doesn’t immediately look away. 

“You didn’t hesitate,” Noct says. He’s not referring to today, but to the incident six weeks prior, where Gladio stepped between Noctis and a blade, branding his face for the rest of his life. 

“No,” he says, “I didn’t.” 

-

“When I was little, I thought it was gonna be more glamorous.”

“What was?”

Noct flourishes his hand into the air above himself.

“Being a _Prince_.”

Gladio laughs. 

“It’s pretty lame,” Noct says, chuckling himself. “I have _one friend_ that doesn’t _have_ to be my friend. I spend _hours_ a week in Citadel extracurriculars. I never see my dad. I have to have a chaperone everywhere I go—“

“ _Hey_.”

“I _like_ my chaperone,” Noct says, his words beginning to slur as he rambles. “But still, I gotta have one.” 

“Fair,” Gladio concedes. 

“I’m eighteen and I’ve never been on a date, never had sex, never even been _kissed_ ,” Noctis continues. “Hard to do any of that when your every move is accounted for.” 

“That must be frustrating,” Gladio says. 

“It is,” he replies. Noct downs another swig of the whiskey. Gladio takes it away for good, setting the remainder of the bottle on the mantle and turning around to look at Noct on the couch, flickering in the firelight. 

“Do you have sex?” Noct asks, looking up at him. 

Gladio instantly feels aware of his state of undress, bare-bodied save the half-damp boxers that cling to his thighs. He sits back down on the floor, drags a blanket over his lap. 

“Uh, yeah,” he answers. “I do.” 

“A lot of sex?”

“Um… plenty, I guess.”

“With one girl or multiple girls?” 

Gladio hesitates, glancing over his shoulder at Noctis and then turning back to face the flames. He figures, _why not_ , they’re drunk anyway and Noct will find out eventually. But it’s not just that... there is a spell cast about the unfamiliar cabin as it shelters them from the storm, and the magic feels strongest in the orange firelight where they huddle together. For some reason, it makes Gladio feel secure in his honesty, tells him to trust Noct with this secret. 

“Not girls,” Gladio replies. 

There is a dizzying moment of silence before Noctis chirps. 

“You’re _gay_?!”

Gladio nods, waits for his reaction, but does not look his way.

“Huh,” Noct says, and then after a moment he adds, “so am I.” 

Gladio starts in surprise. He turns around on the floor to face Noctis on the couch. They stare at each other for a few moments, before Noct lays his head back on the couch and closes his eyes. 

“Huh,” Gladio says. 

“Sorta convenient,” Noct murmurs to himself. 

The Prince is asleep before Gladio can think of what to say. 

-

The next morning Gladio wakes up shivering. He sits on the floor between Noctis and the fireplace. The flame had long gone out, but Noct still slumbers peacefully on the couch beneath multiple layers of blankets, his injured leg perched on the arm. Gladio peers at it closely, dark purple and puffy beneath the bandage. 

He dresses quickly, his skin covered in goosebumps and his teeth chattering. It’s cold, but he doesn’t hear any rain. He stands upright and looks out the window. He sees the brilliant blue sky...

...and the mountainside, covered in snow. 

-

“Yeah, we’ve got enough food,” Gladio says. “There’s a couple pizzas and he caught a bunch of fish. Uh-huh. Yeah, I will. I’m gonna try to look for a generator but there’s enough firewood to keep us warm. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a foot deep, at least. No, the pipes aren’t frozen but there’s no hot water. I _did_ check the forecast, dad. Okay. I’ll stay in touch. Bye.” 

When Gladio hangs up and turns around, Noct is awake, watching him from the couch. Gladio returns to him, starts another log in the fireplace. 

“You hungover?” he asks. 

“I don’t feel worse than I usually do in the mornings,” Noct says. “My ankle is bad. I don’t think I can walk yet.”

“You twisted it real good.”

“You’re gonna have to carry me to the car.” 

“Not happening,” Gladio says. 

“I really don’t think I can walk, Gladio.” 

Misunderstood, he shakes his head and snakes his arms under Noctis on the sofa. The Prince grunts in surprise when Gladio lifts him, blankets and all. He is warm where Gladio makes contact with his bare skin. Noct wraps his arms around his Shield’s neck while Gladio carries him to the window. They gaze out at the frozen landscape together. 

“We ain’t going anywhere anytime soon,” he declares.

The mountainside is so unrecognizable beneath a thick blanket of undisturbed snow that it feels almost as if they have been transported somewhere else entirely. They stare out at the blinding white in silence for several minutes. Gladio can feel Noct tapping his fingers thoughtfully against his shoulder blade. 

“I figure it’ll be at least a day or two until it melts enough to even see the rocks,” Gladio says. “You’ll probably still be lame so it’d be nice if I wasn’t carrying you over slush. We might be here for three or four days, so we’ll have to keep an eye on our supplies.” 

Noctis doesn’t respond and eventually Gladio looks down at him in his arms to discover Noct hasn’t been looking at the snowy view at all. Instead he stares up at Gladio’s face. The Shield has gotten used to the way people stare at his scar in gross fascination, but there’s something different, _always_ something different in the way Noctis reacts to it. Though Gladio cannot read his expression, he thinks the heavy way Noct studies the blademark is important. 

It had been _for him_ after all. 

When their eyes meet Noct brings his cold fingertips to Gladio’s cheek, traces the path the knife carved down his face. 

“Are you…?” Gladio begins, though unsure how the question will end. 

Noct kisses him. 

Gladio practically drops him in his surprise. 

-

Heart pounding, he manages to set Noct back onto the sofa. He hands him his fire-warmed clothes with shaky hands and Noct gingerly dresses himself, Gladio pointedly looking away. 

“Alright,” he says, spreading a blanket over his legs as he reclines back against the cushions. “Now I’ve been kissed.”

Gladio is pacing in front of the couch, stops to face Noct, and then approaches him. He stares down at the injured Prince, who is looking up at him with an openness Gladio thought maybe he needed alcohol to achieve. 

“No,” Gladio says. 

“Wha—?” 

Gladio cuts him off by pressing their mouths together. Stooped over him on the couch, he kisses Noct for a few moments, letting his lips part and move in the way he was too startled to allow at the window. Noctis inhales sharply in surprise and a Gladio brings a hand to his face, holds him there gently while they kiss. After several moments of soft connection, Gladio slowly pulls away, Noct staring slack-jawed up at him. 

“Okay,” he says. “ _Now_ you’ve been kissed.”

-

“Why are you freaking out about this?” Noct asks.

Gladio swings the axe splits another log, kicking the two halves into the pile beside him. Noct sits on the cabin porch on a bench, his injured leg propped up on a bucket and wrapped in a blanket, too swollen to fit in his boots. Gladio pauses his work and looks over at the Prince.

“I’m not freaking out,” Gladio says, a little breathless in the cold air.

“You’ve hardly a said word since you kissed me,” Noct replies pointedly. 

“ _You_ kissed me,” Gladio responds.

“And then you kissed me back! We’re even,” Noct complains. “Don’t try to change the story.”

“M’not trying to change the story,” he says.

Gladio positions another log beneath his axe and swings, effortlessly splitting it in two. He can see Noctis watching him out the corner of his eye, and Gladio thinks to himself with certainty: _we already have_.

-

Noct sits on the kitchen counter, watching Gladio gut and descale yesterday’s catches, cutting red filets and laying them in a bowl of snow he collected from outside. The fire is roaring in the living room and Gladio yanks the grill from inside the stove so they can cook their fish over the flame.

“So, the generator doesn’t work?” Noct asks.

“There’s no telling,” Gladio says. “I found it, but buried it’s under a pile of snow that fell off the roof. I’ll dig it out after lunch.” 

“You should kiss me again,” Noct decrees.

“Why?” Gladio asks, slowing his knife while he glances over at his companion. It is more the abrupt change in topic that surprises him, not the subject, but the question still stands. 

“Because you didn’t use tongue this morning.”

Gladio grunts but does not answer. He turns back to his work, separating another piece of meat from the glistening catch before tossing the harvested skeleton into the trash.

“And if porn has taught me anything,” Noct continues. “Tongue is the next step in sexual activity.”

Gladio tries not to react, but the implication behind Noct’s statement takes him off guard. Though he’s dying to look at him, Gladio refuses to do so, and instead he glares down at the shocked face of the next dead fish he pulls from Noct’s cooler.

“You know,” he says, slipping the knife into its belly. “I don’t really kiss a lot of guys.” 

“Why not?” Noct asks. 

“It’s just not… the type of relationships I have,” Gladio answers. He wipes the counter with a bloodied rag and flips the fish with a slap against the cutting board. “We keep everything, ah… below the belt.” 

“Oh, I get it,” Noct says. “You find strangers in clubs to suck your cock.”

He lets out a single laugh at the crude language. Without looking up from his task, Gladio waffles one bloody palm in the air and says, “And the other way around.” 

Noctis hums, and Gladio can feel his eyes following his hands while he passes the knife down the fish’s spine. 

“You fuck ‘em, too?” 

“Sometimes,” he answers, tossing the remainder of the fish and starting on another. 

“But you don’t kiss them.” 

“No.” 

“They’d probably kiss you, if you kissed them,” Noctis says thoughtfully. 

Gladio answers, “Probably.” 

“I just wanna know what the big deal is, I guess. It seems kinda gross.” 

“It is.” 

“Is that why you don’t like it?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

“Just that you don’t do it.”

“Right.” 

“I guess when we get back to the City you can chaperone me downtown while I look for some guy that _will_ put his tongue in my mou—” 

Gladio shuts him up in the exact way the Prince had been hoping for, if the delighted way he chuckles against his lips is any indicator. Covered in blood and scales to his wrists, Gladio can do nothing but stand between his legs while he kisses him, so Noct makes up for the lack of contact, his hands creeping around his ribcage, his uninjured leg wrapping around Gladio’s thighs, drawing him closer. Without preamble, Gladio presses his tongue into Noct’s mouth and finds his own, slides across it with deliberate strokes. The Prince gasps in wet surprise, and Gladio stomach tightens at the sound.

-

Noctis is still breathing heavily from their kiss while Gladio washes his hands in the kitchen sink. He gathers a bowl of skewered fresh fish and a pair of cooking tongs before offering his back to Noctis so that he may climb aboard. 

“Hop on,” Gladio says. 

“I’ll hang out for a minute,” Noct replies. 

The Shield turns around, eyeballs the Prince, who fidgets where he sits on the kitchen counter, his hands in his lap. 

Gladio returns to the flames.

-

Full of fish and food for thought, Noct falls asleep on the sofa. Tenderly, Gladio elevates his ankle, covers him with a second blanket. For a few moments, he stares down at his sleeping liege, pondering things like _duty_ and _brotherly love_. 

He sighs and grabs a shovel. 

-

Gladio wakes up to Noctis gently pushing his head, rolling it side to side on the couch where Gladio had fallen asleep. He sits on the floor in front of a low burning fire, his rain-damaged novel spread over his thigh. Noct lay behind him on the couch, poking him in the temple repeatedly with two fingers. Gladio cracks his eyes to look at him. Noct stops his prodding and glances away.

“No electricity?” Noct asks, peering around the dim cabin. 

“I dug out the generator,” Gladio says, cracking his back. “But it wouldn’t start. I think it’s waterlogged. I left it out in the sun, we can try again tomorrow.” 

He nods. 

“Are you warm enough?” 

“Yeah.”

 

“How’s the leg?” Gladio asks, looking up at Noct from where his head still lays back on the cushion, sharing the couch with Noct’s ribcage. 

“I don’t think I’ll be able to hit the gym for a few weeks.” 

Gladio laughs. 

“Always lookin’ for an excuse. If it’s that bad we’ll start having to train ya to fight with crutches then. I oughta find you some weights so you can start working your upper body from the couch.” 

Noct scoffs, rolling his eyes playfully. 

“It’s alright as long as I don’t try to move it,” he says. 

“Good. Don’t try to move it. I’ll help you with whatever you need.” 

Noct is looking at him again, so Gladio holds onto his eyes for as long as he will let him. After ten years of coaching and chaperoning the kid, Gladio had gotten used to only seeing his blue eyes on the spar mat. Seeing them now, in the flickering firelight of their mountain refuge, he is filled with complicated emotion he chooses not to name.

“Gladio,” Noct says softly. “I do... need something...” 

“Yeah?” Gladio asks, sitting upright and leaning towards him as he trails off. 

“I need…” he whispers.

Gladio holds his breath to listen. 

“I need to… take a piss.”

The Shield rolls his eyes.

“Brat,” he grumbles, climbing to his feet and scooping the laughing Prince into his arms. 

-

They eat pizza sitting side by side on the couch, staring into crackling flames like a television screen. 

Noct throws a pizza crust into the fire. 

“Hey,” Gladio growls. “We’re rationing. At least give those to me.”

-

“If we kissed right now, would it taste like pizza?” Noct asks, his first words since they finished dinner nearly ten minutes ago. They’re still sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace. There’s nowhere else to go, with the night as cold as it is. They both lean towards the flames, seeking it’s warmth.

“Does your _mouth_ taste like pizza?” Gladio responds, a little derisively.

“Yeah.”

“Then, _yeah_ ,” he says. 

“Do people not like to kiss after they’ve eaten?”

“Some people,” Gladio shrugs.

When Noct doesn’t respond, Gladio turns to face him, and finds Noct looking at him already. They stare each other for a few moments, sitting side by side on the sofa, their faces half flickering-orange and half dark shadow in the harsh contrast of the fire-lit cabin.

They kiss each other at the same time.

-

Noctis doesn’t have any experience, but he follows Gladio’s lead and has always proven himself a quick learner when he’s motivated. Sooner than later, he’s driving the motion of the kiss, his tongue deep inside of Gladio’s mouth, exploring the space behind his teeth, beneath his tongue in such a starved, lewd way that Gladio is almost instantaneously erect. 

Noct’s hands are equally bold, skipping clumsily down Gladio’s stomach or skating slowly up his thighs. Each time he pointedly avoids Gladio’s crotch in a way that makes him harder and harder with each passing second. Gladio’s hands are still, one them snug on the back of Noct’s neck while they kiss, the other flat on his ribcage, and he’s afraid if he begins to map out Noct’s body with his palms he may never stop. 

And then finally, Noct makes the move Gladio had patiently been waiting for. He drags a small hand down Gladio’s stomach and doesn’t stop, lays one light shaking hand over his arousal, letting slip a curious moan into Gladio’s mouth, and Gladio can resist no longer. His hands come alive, one of them landing on top of Noct’s, helping him take a surer grip on Gladio through his jeans. The other flies south, locates Noct’s excitement beneath his pants and palms him there deliberately.

Noct breaks away from the kiss with a gasp, the sound dissolving into a satisfied whine while Gladio massages him, feels him, tries to imagine what he looks like. Noct presses his trapped hardness into the friction in a way that makes Gladio dizzy with lust. Noct follows the example, both hands falling to Gladio’s lap to trace the shape of his swollen cock down the leg of his pants. Gladio waits for his face, but Noct decides not to make eye contact, instead diving open mouthed into another kiss. 

Even though it feels like things are moving too quickly, Gladio doesn’t know how to slow down now, not _now_ , not after years of unrecognized feelings have finally latched onto something tangible… something, some _one, his Prince,_ hard and hungry beneath his hands, seeking his knowledge, seeking his touch. 

Gladio feels outside of himself as his fingers trace the line of Noct’s zipper, bulging outward over the arousal concealed beneath. It feels like he’s watching from across the room, studying the shape of them kissing in the firelight, and in slow motion he sees, but does not process, the exact moment he tugs open Noct’s jeans. 

Instantly, Noct decides he wants to be closer, and Gladio’s heart is pounding in his throat as the Prince crawls into his lap, his shaky hands still fumbling with his jeans. Noct doesn’t fare much better, struggling to move himself, both men unwilling to break the kiss to see what they are doing, and Gladio understands it is this impatience that leads them to the inevitable moment where Noct, unthinking, plants his damaged foot on the floor and tries to propel himself into Gladio’s lap. 

He cries out pitifully, falling back on the couch with his pants half-open and his leg clutched to his chest, tears instantly spilling over his cheeks. 

“Fuck!” he shouts. 

-

Gladio carefully rewraps Noct’s ankle and elevates it on the arm of the couch. He frowns at the Prince, who hides his face while Gladio works, still fighting tears of pain. On either side of his foot, he packs plastic bags full of snow before handing the open bottle of whiskey to Noct and encouraging him to take another swig. 

“Keep drinking,” Gladio tells him. 

“Fuck,” Noct groans after another sip. 

“I bet,” Gladio replies. “You haven’t tried to use it yet.” 

“I definitely cannot use it,” Noct says weakly. 

Gladio tosses another log into the fireplace and takes a swallow from the bottle when Noct passes it his way. He moves to sit on the floor in front of the couch when Noct lifts his head from the pillow and says, “don’t.”

He stops short, and looks to Noct for clarification. He’s sitting up on his elbows, nods over his shoulder to the couch behind him. 

“Don’t sit on the floor.” 

Gladio moves slowly as he lowers himself onto the couch. Whimpering in pain, Noct lays back until his head rests on his thigh. They lock eyes for a moment, and then Noct reaches over his shoulder and takes the liquor bottle from Gladio’s slack hand. 

For a long time, they take turns drinking and saying nothing. Noctis’ cry of pain had killed any arousal and they both reel from the sudden change in tone. Noct breathes heavily from Gladio’s lap, his ankle undoubtedly throbbing. Gladio pushes a sweat-dampened lock from forehead and brushes it back with the rest of his shaggy grey hair. 

Only once he’s drunk enough that alcohol has softened his speech does Noctis talk. 

“You’re going to take my virginity,” he says, a statement. 

Gladio looks away from him and sighs. 

“If you don’t want to do it I’ll just go to a club and find someone else to take it,” the Prince warns. 

“Stop using that threat,” Gladio snarls. 

He giggles. “Why? It works.”

“You’re the _Crown Prince_ , Noct. It’s not safe for you,” Gladio answers, ignoring the second part. 

“ _I think_ you just don’t want anyone else to touch me,” he says, smirking with liquid confidence, or maybe just residual confidence from ten minutes prior when they still were groping at each other’s cocks.

Gladio grunts at him but does not reply, no believable excuses coming to mind. 

“How’s your leg?” he asks after a moment. 

“Can’t feel it,” Noct slurs. 

“Good,” Gladio says, taking the whiskey bottle forcefully from his hand before he can take another swig. 

“What are you so worried about?” Noct asks, “it’s just sex.”

He shakes his head at Noct and looks back at the fire. It’s not the sex he’s worried about, it’s everything else. Already, the intimacies Gladio avoids with men downtown feel natural with Noct— the eye contact, the kissing, the fact that ever since he put his head in his lap, Gladio’s fingers have been gently working through Noct’s hair. This isn’t a casual hookup he can walk away from, this is the Prince he’s sworn his life and body to protect. Rage flares in his belly when he tries to imagine a stranger rutting himself aimlessly against the Prince’s slight frame, seeking release with little or no to concern for Noct’s comfort or safety. 

“I’m better than any guy you’d meet downtown anyway,” Gladio mumbles in drunk frustration. 

“So you’ll do it?!” Noct asks in excitement, looking up at Gladio from his lap, blue eyes reflecting emerald flames in the firelight. 

“Let’s just take it one step at a time,” Gladio says softly, looking sharply away from the heat in Noct’s gaze.

“Yeah, yeah,” Noct says. “That’s all I’m asking.”

They fall into silence. Gladio gently scratches his scalp. Noct drifts easily asleep beneath his touch. 

-

Several hours later, Gladio carefully slides out from beneath Noct and replaces himself with a pillow. He sinks to the floor between Noctis and the fire. He sits cross-legged, back to the flames, and faces his Prince, lost in thought. 

-

When the sky goes periwinkle with the first hint of sunrise, Gladio lowers his novel and gives up on sleep. He rises to his feet and dresses in his boots and jacket. He lays a second blanket over Noctis before he slips out into the cold. 

-

Gladio spends an hour crunching snow beneath his boots, aimlessly inspecting the cabin property. He discovers a large shed built in the back, several yards behind the cabin and tucked into a thicket of trees. In it he finds dozens of fishing rods and hunting arms, plus enough crates of onions and potatoes to last them a year. Gladio loads a burlap sack full of frozen vegetables, chuckling to himself with satisfaction that they’re two kinds the Prince will actually eat. He eyes the weapons with appreciation and Gladio briefly fantasizes about having his own wilderness home one day; perhaps it too will be a mountainside cottage, a secluded escape for a hunter and an angler. 

Inadequately dressed for the snow, he is starting to shiver. He returns to the main cabin, but before he steps inside, he stops at the back porch and gives the generator’s cord an experimental pull. 

It rumbles to life. Beside it, the water heater clicks and hums. 

Gladio pumps his fist in celebration. 

Turning to study the rocky trail, he tries to evaluate how quickly the snow is melting, but away from the water’s edge, it’s hard to tell. Gladio faces the sky, finds the sun attempting to break through thick layers of fluffy white clouds. 

He can’t help but hope it takes its time. 

-

Gladio sinks to the floor between the fireplace and the couch where Noct still slumbers. The sun has only just begun to break over the rocky peaks. After a night of insomnia and contemplation, Gladio finally falls asleep. 

-

“Want some help with that?”

Noct’s eyes snap open and he turns his head to take in Gladio on the floor. Gladio has been watching him. The heater had kicked in when the generator started, and the small cabin has grown downright cozy during their late-morning slumber. Still perched beside the fireside, Noct has thrown his blankets off the couch and Gladio has him pinned beneath his eyes, bare-bodied save a t-shirt shoved up to his collarbone and the boxers that conceal his morning arousal, as well as currently, his hand and wrist. 

Noct slowly removes his hand and sets it over himself on top of his underwear. He glares at Gladio. 

“Morning, pervert.” 

“You’re the one who started jerking off before you opened your eyes,” Gladio chuckles. 

“Forgot I wasn’t at home,” Noct yawns, stretching his arms above his head, letting his cock tent his boxers in a way that holds Gladio’s attention. 

“Heat’s on,” Noct notes aloud.

“Yup. Kill the fire, wouldya?” 

Noct throws a handful of ice at the smoldering logs. They go out with a satisfying hiss. Gladio rises and sits on the edge of the couch by Noct’s feet. 

“How’s the leg?” Gladio asks, laying his hands on Noct’s shins, just below his knees. Noct sits up on his elbows to watch him. Their eyes connect, and Gladio slides his hands past his knees to squeeze his thighs. 

“Good,” Noct breathes. 

“Good,” Gladio says. 

-

When Gladio finally pulls him free from his underwear, Noct groans in relief. They both watch for a few strokes, Gladio appreciating the sight of Noctis’ short, thick cock, and Noct enjoying the sight of it disappearing beneath Gladio’s broad hand. 

Quickly overwhelmed, Noct falls panting back against the couch, pressing his hips up into the delicious touch Gladio provides and it gives the Shield a chance to simply appreciate him, appreciate the experience of touching him somewhere he’s never touched him before. 

“Better than your own hand?” Gladio asks, eyes trailing up Noct’s quivering stomach, over his ribs, expanding with his quick breaths, up to his sharp collarbone and thin neck, to land on his slack mouth, watch his tongue sweep across his lower lip and leave it glistening pink in its wake. 

“Yeah,” Noct sighs deeply. 

Gladio kisses him. 

Any doubts Gladio could still be having are drowned out by the deafening sound of blood rushing past his ears, his heart pounding in his throat. He can feel no apprehension past the consuming sensation of the Prince’s hard cock in his palm, the way he moans against his mouth as he releases generously into the Shield’s serving hand. 

Noct sits up and look down at Gladio’s own tented undergarments. He reaches a small hand out to clutch him through the material and Gladio watches his expression as he moves to expose him entirely. 

Touching Noct has made him very hard, and his own dick is stiff and dark when Noct pulls from his boxers. The Prince’s eyes widen slightly, his lips parting in thought. 

“God, you’re big,” he says, making slow passes over his entire length with one small hand. 

“Try both hands then,” Gladio suggests. 

“Alright, _coach_ ,” he answers defensively, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. 

He laughs, “Isn’t that what you asked for?”

Noct rolls his eyes, wraps a second hand around Gladio’s considerable girth. 

-

“A little harder,” the Shield says. 

Noct’s hand tightens on him firmly, tugs on his cock as he scoots closer on the couch. 

“That’s it, Noct,” Gladio groans. The Prince sits up on his knees, working Gladio with heavy strokes and occasionally grabbing him with a seconds hand, cupping his palm over his swollen cockhead. “Now you’re getting it.” 

“Are you gonna cum?” Noct asks 

“Yeah,” Gladio breathes. “You’re doing great. Don’t stop.” 

Noct continues to work him, pumping him quickly, with firm and deliberate strokes. Gladio’s not sure a handjob has ever felt so good, and it’s not like the Prince is particularly skilled, but there’s something about the searing heat of his little hands that drives him wild, makes him roll his hips into His Highness’ grip. 

Gladio groans, “Yeah, Noct. I’m gonna—“

Noct can’t decide whether he wants to watch Gladio’s face or his cock, and his eyes flit rapidly between the two. Gladio doesn’t share that struggle, he just gazes fondly at Noctis’ face while the younger man brings him to his edge. Suddenly, Noctis pitches forward and kisses him and the feeling of his open, eager mouth sends Gladio tumbling into release. 

He cums in long, continuous spurts over his stomach and thighs. Noct pulls back to stare down at his lap, his hands falling slack on his pulsing flesh. 

-

“Well?” Gladio asks, when they’re both put away, Noct sliding his hands over the surface of his bare thighs as he processes the experience.

“Cool, great, awesome,” Noct says. “What’s my next lesson?”

Gladio grins, chuffed that Noct is embracing the _sex-coach_ thing, quietly grateful for the fuel to futher the lies he’s telling himself. 

“ _Mouths_ ,” he says, waggling his eyebrows. 

From his seat on the couch, the Prince blushes, just slightly, just enough for the Shield to notice. His eyes twinkle with concealed excitement. 

“Okay,” he says eagerly. 

“It’s been a few days since we’ve bathed,” Gladio says. “Oughta take care of that first.”

He rises and reaches out to help Noct stand. Firmly gripping Gladio’s hand, Noct cautiously experiments with bearing weight on his injured leg. 

-

“We’ve got hot water!” Gladio calls out. He lets the shower run, returning to the top of the stairs. Noct stands at the bottom, favoring his left ankle but standing successfully, supporting himself on the railing after hobbling Gladio’s direction. 

Gladio descends the stairs and scoops him into his arms

“Euggh,” Noct says as their bare bodies come into contact. “Sticky.” 

-

“Whoa.” 

Gladio sets him down at the top of the stairs. He gives him one sturdy forearm to lean on and he walks slowly with Noct to the three large windows that dress the quaint upstairs bedroom. From the second story, they are gifted a spectacular view of the mountainside. Facing North, they can see all the way to the fishing spot, the wooden dock submerged entirely by the melting of ice. Looking South, the path home begins to materialize as the snow recedes. 

“We should be able to get back to the car tomorrow,” Gladio says. 

Noct doesn’t respond. 

-

The shower is small but Gladio does not trust Noct to stand unassisted, so they shed their clothes and climb in together. 

It’s been three days since either of them have showered and the rush of hot water feels so good, both of them stand beneath the spray, unmoving for soap and shampoo. They look at each other, unashamed of their eyes crawling over each other’s naked bodies, studying every inch of unseen skin, watching water soak through the hair on their heads, under their arms, above their soft cocks.

Gladio feels Noct’s eyes like fingertips while he traces the lines of his unfinished tattoo, his maybe-insane rendition of the traditional Amicitia brand. It has taken months to ink dense layers of dark feathers into his back and shoulders and he has yet to approach the completed piece. Ironically, his wings were intended to represent his dedication to his duty as Noct’s Shield, but the scar that bisects his face does just as well a job. Gladio can only imagine he will collect more trophies of his fealty in the years to come. 

He studies Noct’s bare body. Small but wickedly fast and deceptively strong, his lithe frame is carved with lean muscle Gladio has spent years cultivating. Still visible, the ghosts of bruises from sparring matches past, never fully getting a chance to heal before Gladio puts them back. He’s left his mark on the Prince as well. He glances down at Noct’s swollen ankle. Successes and failures alike. 

“No room in here for you, Big Guy,” Noct suddenly murmurs, turning around so that he may lean his back against his chest. Gladio rests his hands on Noct’s hips. _I’m just steadying him_ , he thinks to himself, _not holding him_.

Still, they both find peace in the intimate position, and they stand beneath the hot water until it starts to run tepid, and then they wash their skin and hair frantically, shutting the water off just in time for it to go cold. The entire time, Gladio keeps one hand on Noct, ready to catch him if he falls.

-

The gas stove won’t light, so Noct starts a fire and they cook fish and potatoes over the open flame. They sit at two barstools that convert the only counter top into a dining table. They both turn in their seats to face each other while they eat their late lunch. 

“I wanna hear about how it usually goes,” Noct says. 

“How _what_ usually goes?”

“Like, you drop me off at home after practice, and then you go directly downtown, find a cock to suck?”

Gladio scoffs, “You know that’s not what happens.”

Noctis just shrugs, his eye contact direct and challenging while he stretches his mouth around another forkful of food. 

“I don’t know _anything_ ,” he says when he swallows. “Virgin Prince.” 

Gladio sighs. 

“Describe it to me,” Noct requests again. “Where do you go?”

“There’s a few gay clubs downtown, South of the mall, three of ‘em, right in a row. They’re all more or less the same thing, though.” 

“What do you wear?” he asks. 

“Usually just jeans and a t-shirt,” Gladio answers. 

“A tanktop would show off the tattoo,” Noct says. 

Gladio narrows his eyes at him. 

“Tattoos are hot,” he says with a shrug, smirking down at the fish on his plate. 

“It’s not finished yet,” Gladio says, bouncing his foot on the floor. 

“So you go to one of these gay clubs,” Noct continues. “Wearing a t-shirt.” 

Gladio shakes off whatever it was that gave him pause. 

“Yeah, then I grab a few drinks at the bar. You gotta... park yourself somewhere,” he explains. “Start reading the room.” 

“Read the room?” Noct asks, looking at Gladio with an inquisitive expression. 

“Gotta find a guy that’s into me,” he clarifies.

“How can you tell someone is into you?” Noctis asks. 

“Eye contact.”

They sharply look away from each other, suddenly very interested in their food.

“So,” Noct says through a mouthful of potatoes. “You find some guy looking at you, and you decide you like him too, then what?” 

“A couple things can happen,” Gladio says. “You could go up to him, ask him to dance. You could sit pretty at the bar until he comes up to you and buys you a drink.” 

Noct is looking at Gladio again, listening intently, but Gladio doesn’t like the expression on his face. Immediately he regrets his words, already haunted by the image of Noct, _sitting pretty_ , waiting for some jackass to get him sloshed. 

“I skip the flirting,” he says, pointedly. 

“How do you do that?” 

“I look right into his eyes across the bar, silently tell him I wanna suck his cock, and then I leave.”

“You leave?”

“Yup. Walk away. Usually I go to the bathroom. They almost always follow.”

“Wow,” Noct says in awe. “So it’s just straight to the dick-suckin’ for you.”

“I ain’t really lookin’ to date,” Gladio says. “Already got my hands full with you and Iris.” 

“I’m gonna ignore the insult,” Noct grumbles. “Then what happens?”

“Not an insult,” Gladio says. “Grab a bathroom stall and get to it.”

“On a _toilet_?” Noct frowns. 

“Didn’t say it was glamorous,” Gladio says. “But it’s more private than gettin’ on my knees in a hallway.” 

“You like sucking cock that much, huh?” he asks. 

“Yeah,” Gladio says, biting black a grin. “I do.”

-

Noct sits on the couch, staring wide-eyed at Gladio while the Shield drops to his knees in front of him. Gladio lays his hands on Noct’s denim-clad thighs, spreads them slightly so he may settle between them.

“You look nervous,” he says. 

“M’not,” Noct replies. 

“Good,” Gladio chuckles. “No reason to be. All you gotta do is sit there.”

 

He begins to slowly run his hands up Noct’s thighs. 

“Sit pretty,” Noct breathes. “Gotcha.” 

Gladio touches him through his pants, finds him soft there. He gently rubs him with his palm, watches Noct’s face as he leans forward towards Gladio. Noct hooks a finger in the collar of Gladio’s t-shirt, tugs it does to peer at the eagle’s head inked on his chest. 

“Or a v-neck,” Noct muses aloud.

“Noct,” Gladio says, still working him with his hand as Noct starts to stiffen beneath his touch. “Do you think my tattoo is hot?” 

“‘Course,” Noct smirks.

Gladio pulls away from him, tugs his shirt over his head and throws it on the couch beside Noct. 

“Good,” he says. “You should enjoy the view.” 

Topless, Gladio returns to his task, and when he brings his hand to lay over Noct’s bulge once more, he finds him hard beneath his jeans. 

“That was easy,” Gladio says. 

Noct shrugs, “I’m enjoying the view.” 

-

Of all the things that have happened with Noctis so far this weekend, this is the situation that feels most familiar to Gladio. Shutting his eyes and opening his mouth for a cock, it almost feels like he’s back in Insomnia, cruising the club on a Saturday night. 

“Astrals,” Noct breathes. 

Almost. 

Gladio looks up at him, watching Noct’s face as he drags his tongue up the underside of his shaft. Noct stares down at him in awe, mouth hanging open, cheeks bright red. Gladio’s heart clenches in his chest at the sight of him and he has to close his eyes once more. 

He takes the head of his cock into his mouth, wrapping his tongue around him and Noct’s ragged moan floats down from above. He isn’t very long, but the Prince is deliciously thick and his proportions make for a perfect mouthful of hard cock. Gladio’s not doing much, simply enjoying the way he feels in his mouth, his hot, tight skin on his tongue, but it is a lot for the inexperienced Prince, who writhes beneath him on the couch. Gladio squeezes the lean muscle of Noct’s thighs, already quivering beneath his hands. 

“F-fuck,” Noct sputters. 

Gladio chuckles around his cockhead, before he opens his jaw and takes Noct’s length into his throat. Gladio swallows him until his nose presses against the dark hair at the base of his cock. Noctis gasps. 

He bobs his head steadily, working him with an expert mouth. The Prince is panting, occasionally murmuring nonsense, clearly overwhelmed by the hot, wet pleasure his Shield provides. After another long moan slips past his lips Noct slaps a hand over his mouth, panting quickly through his nose. 

Gladio wants to tell him not to hold back, wants to encourage him to be vocal, but he doesn’t want to stop sucking his cock long enough to do so. Plus, it doesn’t matter. Noct let slip enough noises already that Gladio’s cock is throbbing in his jeans. He unzips his pants and pulls himself free, strokes himself languidly while he slides Noctis over his tongue at double the speed. 

He finds Noct’s free hand lying idle on the couch and brings it to be back of head, and with the guidance, Noct’s fingers quickly slip through Gladio’s recently washed hair. Seconds later, his hand cinches tight in his hair and Gladio grunts in pain while Noct explodes into his mouth. 

He opens his eyes to watch him. Noct’s head is thrown back over the sofa, and his hand falls away from his mouth, allowing Gladio to listen to the tail end of his orgasm, all shuddering sigh and breathy moan. He swallows and pulls back only when Noct’s fingers go slack in his hair. 

“It’s rude not to warn a guy,” Gladio says, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. 

Noct lifts his head to look down at Gladio. He’s breathing heavily when he says, “Yeah, didn’t expect it.” 

Gladio grins. 

“I accept the compliment,” he says. 

Noct snorts. 

“But I woulda timed it better,” he continues. 

Gladio sits back on his heels, kneeling on the floor in front of Noct, pumping his cock. The Prince looks down at him, his slowly softening flesh between them, still glistening wet from Gladio’s attention.

“I like to cum at the same time,” he explains. 

Noct laughs weakly. Gladio holds his eyes while he touches himself, and the heat in his groin builds with every passing second that Noctis doesn’t look away. The Prince just gazes back at him, all bright blue irises and soft pink lips. It looks like he came hard, and his awed afterglow just seems to remind Gladio how young he is. Suddenly, he is taken back to three years prior, and he is no longer in the cozy cabin, but rather in a Citadel Ceremonial room, kneeling in front of the then-fifteen year old Prince, being sworn in as his Shield on his eighteenth birthday. Gladio shakes his head and the Noct he knows now comes back into view, looking sleepy where he sits, soft cock sucked dry. 

“What’s your favorite part?” he whispers. 

“Lots of stuff,” Gladio answers breathily, working himself with intent. “Pulling on my hair, the way a hot cock feels on my tongue, shaky thighs beneath my hands, the sounds… mostly though,” he pants. “I really love being on my knees.” 

Noctis does not respond. His eyes trail down Gladio’s naked torso, to where his cock sticks out from his open jeans. 

“So you can control when you cum?” 

“Lots of practice,” Gladio grunts, slowing his fist to milk himself at his edge. 

“Let’s see it, Big Guy.” 

 

Gladio growls in the back of his throat, the nickname sending a potent wave of arousal up his spine. In three more strokes, he is releasing generously into his hand, spilling down his wrist. This time, Noct is watching his face when Gladio cums. 

-

He rides Gladio piggy-back up the stairs. 

“Did you like it?” Gladio asks him. 

“Yes,” Noct answers simply. 

He tips Noct carefully onto the bed, where he shimmies out of his jeans and beneath the covers within moments. 

Downstairs, Gladio paws through a bookcase. He finds a few books that catch his eye and pulls any title that reference fishing. Returning to the bedroom, he discovers the Prince already sleeping, and he sets the stack of books on the beside table quietly. 

Gladio climbs onto the bed beside him and opens the cover on a new story. He watches the slowly melting snow out the window view while he reads. 

-

Noct leans against the kitchen counter, occasionally showing Gladio pictures of fish from the book spread open in his hands. Gladio tries to pay attention, but he’s prepping dinner and Noct long ago has slipped into jargon-filled angler speech that flies over his head, even with the intermediary knowledge he’s picked up over the years of escorting Noct on his fishing trips. 

“Hmm,” Gladio says in response to the water temperature preferences of the Crimson Trevally. 

And then, out of the blue, Noct says, “I wanna suck your dick.”

Gladio starts in surprise. He shuts the oven on their pizza, and turns to face Noct, who is looking down at the pages of his book like he’d simply read off the long-winded name of some special kind of lure.

Noct glances up at Gladio for half a second before he returns to the text, flips the page. 

“Not right now,” he clarifies. “After dinner.” 

-

Gladio is unable to pinpoint the source of his shaking hands, his thudding heart, as Noctis slowly drops to his knees before him. Two small hands rest atop his knees, and Gladio can see that Noct is shaking too. 

“Wait, wait,” Gladio says, trying to catch his breath. “How’s the leg?”

“Eh,” Noct says, shifting his weight onto his uninjured side. 

“Here,” Gladio says. He lifts Noct by his forearm and throws a pillow on the ground for his ankle. Noct lowers himself to his knees once more, positions his sore foot over the pillow with a satisfied nod. 

“Alright,” he says, snaking his arms beneath Gladio’s thighs as he scoots closer between them. “Talk me through it, coach.” 

Gladio lets out a shuddering sigh. 

-

“Just… put it in my mouth?” Noct asks. 

Noct has one hand slowly stroking him, occasionally squeezing in appreciation as Gladio grows fully erect beneath his touch. He’s licking his lips in thought, eyebrows furrowed in concentration while he studies Gladio’s cock, tries to size up his opponent. 

“As long as you don’t bite it, there’s really no wrong way to do it,” Gladio says. “Try a bunch of stuff to figure out what feels good.” 

“How will I know if it feels good?” 

“I’ll let you know.” 

“‘Kay,” Noct says, staring down at the cock in his fist. A long moment passes, the Prince unmoving, his Shield watching him carefully. 

“You chickenin’ out, kid?” 

It works. His eyes cut to him and narrow into a perfect glare. Without hesitation, Noct leans forward and drags a broad tongue over the head of his cock. Gladio groans softly, unable to hide his smirk. He’s always been a sucker for a challenge. 

Noct repeats the move a few times, and Gladio’s cock is so hard under Noct’s unmoving palm that it throbs with every beat of his pounding heart. 

“Use your hand,” Gladio tells him. “Pet me.” 

He stutters for a moment, but settles on an even rhythm, stroking the entire length of Gladio’s erection while he continues to lick at him. Noct’s eyes cast down to his task when begins to explore, pressing his tongue against the hole at the tip, curling it beneath its swollen cap. Gladio moans and Noct has to stop licking at him, unable to hold back a grin.

“Feels good,” Noct says without looking away from his pumping hand.

“Yeah,” Gladio sighs, laughing weakly. “Feels good.”

-

“Can you feel how hard I am?” Gladio asks. 

Noct nods, his wet lips pressed against the side of Gladio’s shaft where he had been dragging his mouth up and down, pressing sloppy kisses against his length. 

“You gotta give me a little more,” he pants. 

Inquisitive blue eyes flit his direction. Noct isn’t doing a bad job by a long shot, but the inexperienced, curious way his mouth skates over him has Gladio aching with arousal and longing for satisfaction. 

“Close your mouth around me,” he instructs. 

Noct does as he’s told, looking up at Gladio from his position on the floor. He closes his lips around Gladio’s cock, bringing his tongue up to press firmly against the several inches he has in his mouth. 

“Just like that,” Gladio sighs in relief. “Now bob your head up and down— yeah, just like I did— there you go.” 

Gladio’s thighs clench and quiver as a Noct draws the pleasure from him. 

“That’s it, Noct,” Gladio praises, his words low and his voice rich. 

Suddenly, his hand goes still. Gladio watches in shock as Noct unhinges his jaw and attempts to swallow him. Gladio gasps as the hot pleasure of his wet mouth sinks around him. 

“Noct—!”

The Prince gags hard on him, and pulls back to cough while Gladio tries to gather himself. 

“Don’t—-” he starts, but Noct dives forward again. 

Gladio fights the impulse to knock back into the trembling heat of his passage. He moans raggedly while Noct gags around him, the muscles of his throat gripping him tight, shooting electricity through his body, making his fingers go numb and his balls ache. There is no artistry here, but Noct’s commitment makes up for it. 

Despite suffering around him, the Prince continues to stroke Gladio’s cock into his open throat. The sounds of his choking is joined by Gladio’s involuntarily groans, his heavy sighs. 

“Damn, kid.”

When Noct pulls away, Gladio can see that his face is damp with tears, his own saliva dribbling down his chin. Cobalt irises burn up at him beneath wet eyelashes, above pink mottled cheeks. Gladio’s seen Noct cry plenty of times—- Hell, he’s usually the _reason_ the Prince melts down. But this is different, looking at Noct’s wet face, still poised lips opens above his aching flesh. His cock twitches in Noct’s hand.

“You don’t gotta learn it all in one day,” Gladio says. 

Noct shrugs. Gladio looks down at him while he slowly pets his slippery cock. 

“But it feels good,” Noct says, half a question. 

“Yeah,” Gladio laughs. 

Noct opens his mouth and swallows him again. Gladio chokes on his breath nearly the same moment Noct chokes on his cock. After nearly a decade as his student, Noct still harbors a desire to impress him. Noct fights through his gag reflex, breathing heavily through his nose, his little hand tight where he pumps Gladio at the base. 

“Fuuck, Noct,” he groans. 

Noct looks up at him, all blazing white eyes with just a sliver of blue. He’s still crying, red lip stretched wide around his girth. Gladio brings a hand to rest gently on the back of his head and Noct hums through a throatful of cock. 

“You’re doing great,” Gladio tells him. 

Noct scoots a few inches closer, and releases Gladio’s cock with his hand so he can wrap both arms around his thick thighs, cling to him while he continues his work. Gladio takes over pumping himself, let’s Noct focus on his task of sliding his open mouth up and down his hard flesh. His cock is slick with Noct’s drool and just from a few passes of his own hand, Gladio feels the tide receding. He slips his fingers through Noct’s hair, scratches encouragingly at his scalp. 

“Try to relax,” he says, his own voice strained. “Breathe through your nose.”

Noct slaps a hand on Gladio’s thigh weakly, which Gladio interprets to mean _I know_. 

“Keep it up, Noct,” he grumbles. “Gonna bust for you.” 

Noct fucks him with his throat, his hands fisted in the material of Gladio’s jeans. 

“Better pull off,” Gladio groans, sitting up straight and pumping his cock quickly, letting his fist brush against Noct’s dripping lips. “Less you wanna swallow.”

Noct’s eyes cut up to him, shockingly bright through their glassy wetness. He holds the gaze and continues to bobs his head. Moments later, Gladio releases with an orgasm so powerful he has to throw his head back with a single sob. His cock spasms as he cums, and Noct gags on him again, ripping another ragged moan from the back of Gladio’s throat. 

Still reeling, Gladio manages to sit up and look down at Noct, who is bent to the side spitting Gladio’s cum out onto the floor. He wipes his tongue on the back of his hand with a look of disgust. He is frowning up at his coach, but he doesn’t pull away when Gladio reaches forward, wipes cold tears from his cheek with his thumb. 

“You did good, Champ.” 

-

The Prince hobbles his way to the kitchen, where he washes his face in the kitchen sink and retrieves the book he had been reading. For the rest of the evening, Noct is quiet, reading or messing around in his phone. 

Gladio gives him space while he processes whatever it is he needs to process. He can tell Noct is upset but he doesn’t feel like he’s in a position to comfort him. Noct still has a lot of learn about sex, and Gladio realizes he may not like all of what he learns. Or maybe he simply regrets asking _Gladio_ to be the one to teach him. 

“You okay?” he asks, fidgeting with his novel from the other end of the couch. 

“I’m fine,” Noct says. 

Gladio can’t help but feel this entire situation is his fault. Had he kept a better eye on the weather, had he stayed closer to Noct, had he caught him when he fell, had he stayed sober, had he not kissed him back…

He looks the Prince’s direction, watches him while Noct is buried in his phone. Gladio has sworn his entire life to Shield him, and he lists in his head like a mantra each moment he has failed. 

It comforts him that tomorrow they can descend the mountain and return to the Crown City. They will leave this place and never return. It won’t be too hard to pretend this weekend in the cabin didn’t happen, and hopefully, they can go back to the way things were. 

-

Noct carefully climbs the stairs on his own, Gladio a few steps behind, a steadying hand raised to, but not touching, the Prince’s lower back. 

Gladio brings him a glass of water, makes sure he has his book, helps him plug his phone into the outlet on the wall. Noct won’t meet his eyes. 

Once he is settled in the bed, Gladio returns to the couch downstairs and tries to focus on his book, haunted by the memory of Noct on his knees before him, his cock in his mouth and tears on his cheeks. Aside from the screaming awareness that he failed his duty as Shield, the worst part is the sudden ability to put to words complicated emotions he’s been beating back all weekend, like the jealousy he feels when he thinks about someone _else_ getting to be Noct’s first and a dangerous hopefulness that had been lurking beneath the surface, the inkling that this all had been more than _just sex_. 

-

“Gladio?”

The Shield is startled awake. He is still sitting upright in the couch, an open book over his thigh, having drifted asleep only after several hours of distracting himself with fiction. 

“Gladiooo?” 

He jumps to his feet. 

“I’m coming,” he calls out, taking the stairs two at a time towards Noct’s voice and he is reminded of running down the hallway of his home, rushing to Iris when she’d wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night. His heart pounds with an ungrounded panic, thinking maybe Noct tried to use the bathroom and reinjured himself. 

He pushes the door open to the bedroom, finds the Prince still buried in the covers. There is no lamp on in the room, but the windows let enough moon through to cast silver light over Noct’s soft face. With just his head peeking out, he looks disheveled but peaceful in his nest. 

“What’s wrong?” Gladio asks. 

“Nothing,” he answers. 

“What do you need?” 

He doesn’t answer, just stares out the window. Frustrated, Gladio follows his eyes, takes in the star spattered sky above the dark silhouette of the mountain ridge. Far above the City, the sky is untainted by artificial light and he is momentarily stunned by the view. Gladio lets his eyes trace the constellations he can find, briefly forgets about all of his failures as Shield.

“Will you sleep up here, with me?” 

He turns around in surprise, but Noct denies him any confirmation. He pointedly avoids his eyes, rolls over in the bed and faces away from him. 

-

Gladio cannot sleep. He left his book downstairs and does not want to leave Noct to fetch it, so he lay in the bed beside him and simply listens to him breathe. 

Minutes or hours after Gladio settled down, he feels the mattress dip as Noct begins to move, the covers slipping and letting cold air creep into their blanket cocoon. He listens and waits for Noct to get comfortable once more, but the moment doesn’t come. The Prince shifts himself until Gladio can feel the heat of his body radiating over his in their close proximity.

Hovering over him in the bed, Noct’s hand locates his bearded jaw, skates upwards to cup his cheek, fingertips falling into the valley of his scar and the touch is so tender Gladio’s heart lurches in his chest. He breathes in sharply, sighs “Noct…” on his exhale. 

Noct finds Gladio’s lips in the darkness with his own. 

They kiss for a long time, mouths moving slowly, their tongues undemanding as they gently stroke into each other. Noct is up on his elbows over Gladio in the bed, pinning him against the mattress, one slim leg thrown over his. Gladio runs his hands over Noct’s body, over his ribs, around his back, down his sides, savoring every part of him he’s allowed, knowing it very likely may be the last time he’s given the opportunity to touch him like this— not as a coach, not as a Shield, but as a lover. 

Eventually, Noct breaks away from him and his arms collapse, letting his small frame fall on top of Gladio in the bed. With his head tucked beneath his chin, face pressed against Gladio’s chest, Noct falls back asleep. Gladio wraps his arms around him and is greeted with the bitter thought that there’s nowhere safer his Prince could be. 

-

When the early morning birdsongs stir Gladio from his slumber, he finds himself still beneath Noctis in bed, his liege’s small hands closed around handfuls of his t-shirt, breathing through his mouth and drooling peacefully onto Gladio’s chest. Gladio has never done this before, slept in bed with another man, woken up with his warm body still in his arms. 

He gazes out the window while the sky lightens. The snow clings to the mountain in patches, but the ground peeks through and the path back to the car is suddenly visible, carving its way through the hillside, curling around jagged outcropping of rock, much like the one that tripped Noct four days prior. Today, at least, the path is clear. Gladio looks down at Noct’s face, just inches from his own. As if he can feel Gladio’s gaze, he cracks his eyes and peers up at him, still half asleep. Gladio strokes a hand down his back. Noct leans up to kiss him. It’s a sleepy kiss, just the soft drag of lips over his own before Noct lowers his head once more. He closes his eyes again, but Gladio doubts Noct can sleep with his ear atop his drumming heart. It felt like a dream, kissing him in the middle of the night. Now, in the blue light of the sunrise, Gladio realizes Noct’s midnight affection hadn’t been an ending, but a beginning instead.

“We can go home today,” he softly says. 

“I don’t want to go home today,” Noct answers, unmoving.

He glances down at his face, but his eyes are still shut, so he looks out the window once more, follows the hiking trail North instead, back towards the waterlogged fishing hole where this whole situation began. Noct begins to move on him, slowly sliding up the length of his body until he can lean his forehead against Gladio’s cheek, press his erection into Gladio’s thigh. 

“You’ve still got more to teach me, coach.” 

Gladio chuckles in his surprise, the sound throaty as he immediately succumbs to lust. Noct’s body aligned with his, touching head to toe is already a lot, and it is feels almost _too much_ to have the added sensation of Noct’s small body moving in his arms as he experimentally rubs his hips against Gladio. 

“Thought maybe you decided you didn’t like cock,” he responds, sliding his hands to rest on Noct’s lower back, encourage him to keep moving. 

“It was definitely an experience,” he snorts, pressing his face into Gladio’s neck, sighing softly against his skin as he finds a good angle to rut his cock into Gladio’s side. 

“We don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to,” Gladio tells him, dizzily thinking that having Noct dry humping him in bed is already a hundred times better than having him suck his cock could ever be. 

“I didn’t say I don’t want to,” he says quietly, his voice thin. Gladio’s cock stiffens at the implication, the memory of what Noct looked like on his knees, the way the Prince sounds now, already finding pleasure in the friction of his thigh. 

He reaches down to feel himself through his underwear and Noct notices him do it, shoving his hand away under the covers. Gladio obediently brings both hands back to Noct’s body, one on his back, one his upper thigh as the Prince slides his small body on top of Gladio’s in the bed, brings their fabric covered erections in contact with each other. Noct gasps, even though he was the one to make the move. Gladio’s hands tighten on him and he rolls his hips up, just hear him gasp again. 

“Gods, Noct,” Gladio grumbles. 

“This is good,” Noct laughs breathlessly, pressing the words into Gladio’s chest. 

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Go on. Grind into me.” 

Noct begins to move, dragging his hardness firmly against Gladio’s own as he rolls his hips into the waiting pleasure. Gladio feels more than hears Noct take a ragged breath against his chest and the Prince is so small in comparison to him, Gladio can lift his head and press his mouth against the top of Noct’s head, breathe deeply his scent and commit it to memory.

This is all very new to Gladio, though he’s _supposed_ to be the experienced one in Noct’s equation. Kissing, cuddling, waking up together only to slip into affectionate eroticism all falls into a category for a type of relationship Gladio never expected to have. As a Shield, he always felt his duty was too great to tolerate distractions, his lifestyle too structured around Noctis to date.

He hadn’t _considered Noctis_ , however. 

At least, not in a way he was aware of. Admittedly, it took him less than five minutes after learning the Prince was interested to kiss him again. He’s always loved Noct, as a brother, as a student, as a friend. He just hadn’t thought _this_ was an option. 

Gladio is grateful when Noct pulls him from his thoughts, his open mouth landing Gladio’s neck as he shifts on him, scooting up his body with a guttural groan as he continues to rolls his cock into his Shields muscled frame. One of Noct’s thighs slips between Gladio’s legs, giving him delicious friction to grind into and Gladio’s hands fall to Noct’s ass to hold him there. Noct lets out almost a whimper and Gladio squeezes his fingers into the lean muscle of his ass in an attempt to find the sound again. 

Noct lets Gladio hold him still, his breath coming out as short gasps as he uses his grip on his ass as leverage to grind his cock up into Noct’s thigh, his own erection hot and damp through his boxers where it presses against Gladio’s stomach. 

“Pretty good at moving that body, kid,” he says gruffly. 

“You always said I was talented.” 

“Don’t get cocky,” Gladio chides. 

“Isn’t that _exactly_ what we’re doing?” Noct snorts. 

Gladio chuckles, but doesn’t relent, continues to roll his aching cock where Noct’s little body perches atop him, and the Prince has nothing more to say, all soft lips and breathy moans where he presses his face against Gladio’s neck, clutching to him while he works. 

“Tell me what to do, coach,” he whispers. 

“Kiss me there.” 

Noct places a few clumsy kisses along the span of Gladio’s neck. He sighs when he feels Noct’s lips parting, feels the first sweet touch of his timid tongue, and Noct latches onto the sound. He kisses him sloppy, tongue and scraping teeth and Gladio opens his neck to him, shuts his eyes and lets himself groan as he continues to grind up into him. 

Whenever they _do_ descend the mountain and leave this fever-dream of a weekend behind, Gladio knows he’ll never forget this moment, the way it feels to have his Prince on top of him, his ass in his hands, his lips on his neck. He can’t begin to guess what will Noct will want from him, in the long run, but Gladio knows he will remain forever changed by the experience of getting to have him. 

“Leave me a mark,” he says lowly. 

Noct pauses mid lick, breathing heavily against his neck. He bites down.

The pain is so sudden, Gladio’s combat training kicks in, and he flips Noct over and pins him to the mattress fast enough that the Prince struggles to catch his breath, staring wide-eyed up at his Shield. Gladio sighs and releases his hold but remains over him in the bed, watching Noct’s expression twist into poorly hidden glee. 

“Supposed to _suck_ ,” Gladio says. 

“Sorry,” he laughs. 

Gladio rolls his eyes. There’s no telling if he should blame the bite on virgin naivety or the fact that Noct is an asshole. 

“I’m hard,” the Prince says. 

“We ain’t done,” he growls.

His neck still stinging, Gladio wraps a hand around Noct’s thigh and manhandles him a little bit, spreading his legs so he can settle between him, drag his hard cock up Noct’s inner thigh, to rut right beside Noct’s erection as he begins to hump him into the mattress. 

“ _Ramuh_...” Noct sighs, spreading his legs and pressing his hips towards Gladio.

“Like that?”

“Yeah,” he groans. 

He thrusts against him, long slow swings of his hips that roll Noct’s little body across the bed. Noct moans, pressing his face against Gladio’s shoulder and the sound sends chills radiating over his skin, encourages him to keep grinding into him, pull from him shaky gasps and whimpers as the sensation begins to drown him. 

“Gladio..! I’m—“

Noct’s body goes stiff beneath his in the bed, his limbs shaking, his hands suddenly clawing at home where they had been resting gently on his biceps while Gladio worked. Noct cums with a long whine, his head thrown back on the pillow, his little cock pulsing against Gladio’s as he empties into his underwear. Gladio smirks down at him as Noct slowly opens his eyes. 

Maybe half a warning is the best he can do, and Gladio will have to get used to finishing himself off, staring back at the Prince, post-orgasm. He’s finding that doesn’t mind, really. Noct is pretty after he comes, slack lips and pink cheeks, and he’ll look right at a Gladio with his heavy-lidded, glassy eyes. Gladio holds the gaze. Still hovering over him in the bed, he pulls out his cock and pumps himself steadily. 

Slowly, Noct raises a shaky hand to creep behind Gladio’s neck, pulls his Shield into a messy kiss. Gladio kisses him until he can no longer, the heat in his gut coiling tight and making him breathe heavily into the space between their mouths while he works himself. Noct runs his fingers over Gladio’s mouth in absence of his, letting his thumb tug down on a plush lower lip, dragging fingernails along his bearded jaw and lower, to press curiously at the welt on his neck, trace each indent left behind by his teeth in Gladio’s flesh. 

“Want you to fuck me,” he whispers. 

“I was afraid… you were… regretting… asking for my help,” Gladio finds himself admitting, panting while he works himself. 

“Better than some guy from the club,” Noct muses, dragging his hands down Gladio’s muscled chest, tense stomach. 

It’s all he needs to go reach his peak, and Gladio groans loudly as he begins to release over Noct in the bed below him. 

-

“Eeuggh,” Noct groans, climbing out of bed and examining his clothes. 

Gladio stares at him in awe, stunned breathless by the sight of him, sleep-disheveled after a night in Gladio’s arms, cum dripping down his thighs, streaked across his t-shirt. 

“What?” he asks, glaring at the unmoving Shield. 

“Nothing,” Gladio says. And then a moment later he adds, “Like you, like this.” 

Noct makes a face, peeling himself out of his ruined clothes. 

“Pervert,” he smirks, shoving past Gladio for the shower. 

-

Gladio finds a box of instant oatmeal in the back of the cupboard and he boils water beside the fire so they can have a breakfast that doesn’t include frozen pizza or potatoes, having finished off the fish. Wearing nothing but his jeans, unbuttoned and low on his hips, Gladio watches Noct wash his clothes in the kitchen sink. He returns to the living room and hangs them over a chair by the fire to dry. 

“I’ll have to tell Ignis you did your own laundry,” Gladio teases. 

“Go ahead. I’ll tell him you’re the one who came on my shirt.” 

They laugh briefly before fading into a thoughtful silence at the reminder that Insomnia still exists, waiting for them at the bottom of the hill. Noct buries himself in his oatmeal, doesn’t even complain that they don’t have any milk or sugar. 

“Hey,” Gladio says when they finish their meals. “Wanna go fishing?”

-

Squatting on the front porch of the cabin, Noct inspects his rod and changes the line before snapping his tackle box shut and lifting it by the handle. He holds the rod in the other hand, leaving his cooler for Gladio to carry. 

“Nuh-uh,” Gladio says. “Use your armiger.” 

“I don’t like to use—” 

“ _Use it_.”

Noct wheels on Gladio, but his serious look works, and moment later the items vanish into blue light. 

-  
“Yeah— Yeah, the snow melted. No, he can’t walk yet,” Gladio says, two paces behind the slow-moving, but perfectly mobile Prince. “ _I know_ , Dad. We’ll leave tomorrow— I’ll carry him if I gotta. Yeah… Yeah… Say hi to Iris for me…. Fine. Bye.”  
-

Despite Noct’s reduced speed, the trip to the fishing hole only takes half an hour. Though he looks for it, he can not locate the exact place Noct fell and twisted his ankle. Gladio squints at the sky. There are a few fluffy white clouds in the distance, but they look far away and non-threatening. 

“Wow,” Noct says. “I wonder if the weather brought any new fish out.” 

The dock is completely submerged in water, so they park themselves several meters back. Gladio watches as Noct tries to hoist himself onto a flat rock at chest level. He squints skeptically at his ankle, so the Shield walks over and lifts him by the hips, sets him on the rock, his feet dangling above the swollen lake edge. Gladio hands him his rod and sets his tack box beside him.

“There ya go, Princess,” he says. 

Noct responds with a sharp glare and a soft smile before he turns to select a lure. To avoid the danger of a flying hook, Gladio needs to either stay right next to Noct or find a seat several meters back. He usually picks the latter, but today, he leans against the rock face beside Noct’s gently swinging feet and opens his book. Noct shifts his knee to bump against Gladio’s shoulder. 

They stay like that for several hours, touching, rarely talking. The fish bite, and Gladio grabs each catch and tosses them into the cooler so Noct doesn’t have to get down from his lakeside throne. Even after he fills the cooler, Noct continues to fish, so Gladio lets Noct have a good look at each catch before he unhooks them and tosses them back into the water. Each time, he returns to his book, Noct’s presses his leg to his side. 

“Gladio,” he says, after over an hour of silence. 

“Hmm?” Gladio asks, turning to look up at the Prince. If he’s talking, he’s probably done fishing. He put away his novel so he may grab Noct’s rod and tackle box, set them on the ground. 

“Do you think I’m hot?” 

Gladio laughs, immediately awash with recent-made memories he already knows will never leave him: Noct, in the shower, Noct, on his knees, Noct, arching his lithe body off the bed and into Gladio while he cums. 

“Yeah,” he says, “really hot.” 

Noct doesn’t respond. Gladio helps him down, bearing the weight of his body so he can set him down gently. Once on the ground, Noct keeps his arms around Gladio’s neck, looking up at him from a foot below, cheeks red. 

“Good,” he finally says. 

Gladio laughs again, and he’s been trying hard _not_ to laugh at Noct while he experiences this sexual awakening, but he just can’t help it sometimes, too consumed by his own giddy disbelief. To shut himself up, he closes their distance with a kiss. 

They haven’t kissed like this yet, both of them standing. Gladio is intimately aware of how small Noct is, having a decade of experience with the Prince, slippery and swift on the training mat, but it still feels like a shock when he has to stoop to reach him, and it feels like a shock that he _doesn’t_ warp away. Instead, Noct’s hands immediately fist into the material of Gladio’s sweatshirt, tugs him impossibly closer, pushing up onto the toe of his uninjured leg so he can press his tongue past Gladio’s lips. 

Gladio lifts him a foot off the ground, bringing their faces level and walks until Noct is back against the rockface, wrapping his legs around Gladio’s waist. He leans into Noct, not enough to hurt him against the rock, but just enough to give him a little pressure between the legs while he pushes his tongue into Noct’s mouth. The combination works, and he earns a throaty whine from his liege, can feel him instantly begin to stiffen through his jeans. 

“You still wanna get fucked?” he asks when they break for air. 

Noct nods, his eyes wide with need. 

“Okay,” he says. “There’s something we gotta do first though.”

“What’s that?” Noct asks. His eyes run the length Gladio’s scar, his fingers teasing the hair at the back of his neck. 

“You gotta top the first time.” 

Noct’s face betrays his surprise. Gladio smiles. 

“You want me to fuck you?” he asks. 

“Yep.” 

“Okay,” Noct shrugs, trying to bite back his toothy grin. Without complaint, he recalls his belongings to his armiger, kicks his heels on the back of Gladio’s thighs. 

“Carry me home,” he requests. 

“Your leg hurt?”

“Nah,” Noct says, crawling from Gladio’s arms to latch onto his back. “But this is more fun.” 

-

Gladio emerges from the bathroom, clutching a towel around his waist with one hand. Noct lowers his phone from his face, looks his bare body over from the bed. He sits up, leans towards him. 

Gladio drops the towel.

“Hey,” he breathes.

“Hey, kid.” 

Gladio sits down on the side of the bed, gestures for Noct to join him. He slides off the other side of the mattress and walks slowly to him. Nude, and half-hard from anticipation, the Shield waits patiently for his Prince. 

Noct comes to stand between his legs, and Gladio puts his hands on him immediately, slipping them beneath his t-shirt and skating over his smooth skin as he pulls Noct closer. 

Noct kisses his forehead, his scar, his lips. 

-

“Jeez, quite a view,” he murmurs.

Gladio feels the mattress dip and he glances over his shoulder to watch. He’s kneeling on the bed, his hard cock hanging heavy between his legs while Noct crawls up behind him, his hands shakily falling to Gladio’s lower back. Noct experimentally squeezes his ass and Gladio presses back into his touch, earning a surprised sound of arousal from Noctis. 

“Do I gotta..?” 

“I got ready for ya.” 

So gently Gladio almost doesn’t feel it, Noct brings his thumb to slide down the cleft of his ass, to pause on the prepared entrance that awaits him. Noct circles his hole with his finger lightly. Gladio watches the Prince over his shoulder, his thoughtful face, and the way he strokes himself in contemplation. He tosses him a bottle of lube and Noct catches it, staring down at the clear bottle in his hand. 

“Go on,” Gladio urges.

Noct slicks his cock, sucks his lower lip into his mouth as he brings the head of it to Gladio’s opening. 

“Come on, Noct,” Gladio says, his own cock starting to throb needily with the promise of penetration. He shifts onto one arm and pumps himself. “Whatchya waitin’ for?” 

Noct grumbles something that Gladio doesn’t catch while he shifts forward, jostling the mattress and bringing the head of his cock to press against Gladio’s opening. Noct grunts in mild surprise, like the sensation of Gladio’s hole kissing his cockhead is already more than he anticipated. 

“Give it to me,” Gladio encourages. 

_Finally_ , he does, and Gladio sighs in ragged relief as Noct presses into him, his breath drawn out on a weak groan. Noct’s fingernails dig into his skin while he clutches desperately at Gladio’s hips, taking his time as he fully sheaths himself inside his Shield. 

He stops there, breathing heavily, and Gladio looks over at him, at the pleasures expression on his face as he stares down at their connected hips. Noct lifts his face to meet his eyes and Gladio squeezes himself on Noct’s girth, earning a few open mouth pants from the Prince. 

“I can feel your heartbeat,” he says. “On my cock.” 

“Feel good?”

Noct laughs weakly. 

“Move, when you’re ready.” 

Noct shakes his head, hands trembling where he holds himself inside of Gladio. He won’t admit it, but Gladio knows the no-longer virgin Prince is trying hard not to cum. He lowers his face to the bedspread, hiding his twisted smile in the covers. 

It’s been a long time since Gladio has had a man inside of him. The sweet burn of Noct’s thickness spreading him open makes his cock even harder in his fist, and Gladio works himself steadily, letting the pressure build, easy and quick. 

Slowly, too slowly, Noct begins to pull back, drag his cock through Gladio’s velvet heat, driving forwards again before he’s moved too far, moaning through bitten lips as he sinks to the hilt once more. 

“That’s it, Noct,” Gladio praises. “Just like that.” 

Noct repeats the move a few times, pulling himself out a little more each time, before thrusting his hips forward once more. As he finds his rhythm, Gladio feels his thighs beginning to shake. He groans loudly while Noct works, and the sound of it makes Noct’s hands tighten on his hips. 

“Gods,” Noct grinds the word out through his teeth. 

“You tell me when you’re getting close, kid.”

Gladio watches him nod, cheeks red and mouth open. He pistons himself into Gladio several more times, the heat in his cheeks spreading down his pale neck, to mottle the smooth skin of his chest. The Shield studies his Prince in appreciation, watches him as he slips into the consummation of pleasure. 

Gladio finds his edge and slows his hand as not to climax, moaning as he pulls back from the fall, the motion to Noct’s cock in and out of him threatening to push him over, regardless. Suddenly, Noct slumps over his back, bringing more of their bare skin in contact and Gladio moans in gratitude as the Prince begins to hump into him, hard and fast. 

“I… I am…” Noct groans, pressing his forehead between Gladio’s shoulder blades, digging his cock deep inside of him, sharp hip bones pressing into the meat of Gladio’s ass. 

Gladio tightens his fist and pulls himself into orgasm with three more strokes. He clenches around Noct where he penetrates, dragging Noct gasping into his own release. Gladio moans long and low as he rides the waves of pleasure, the sensation of Noct’s seed spilling inside him making it all the more sweet. 

Gladio supports his weight on his hands and knees while Noct lay over his back, weak and useless. 

“How was that?” Gladio asks once he’s caught his breath. 

Noct erupts into involuntary laughter, wrapping his arms around Gladio’s middle and squeezing him in a hug. 

-

“I don’t know to play that game,” Noct says. 

“I’ll teach you,” Gladio tells him, dealing playing cards out between the two of them. “Looking forward to going home?”

“Not really,” he says. “It’s been nice to feel cut off from the rest of the world.”

“Yeah it has,” Gladio agrees. 

“It’s cold tonight,” Noct muses, igniting the fireplace with a handful of flames. 

-

Gladio works by the light of the fire, stripping Noct of his pants and underwear, doesn’t shy away from running his hands over the bare skin of his lower back, his thighs, his ass. Noct leans into him, and it only makes the task more difficult, but Gladio isn’t willing to sacrifice Noct’s mouth on his neck, or the possessive and mildly painful way he works to darken the bite mark he left behind with a suck bruise. 

When he has Noct’s small body bare beneath his hands, Gladio pulls his hands away for long enough to shove his jeans off his hips. He sits back on the couch, pulling Noctis with him, into his lap. 

Noct straddles him, their bare thighs coming in contact with a satisfied sigh from both men. Their cocks bump together where Noct shifts around in his lap and Gladio takes the both of him in his broad hand, strokes him until Noct falls still with a soft moan. Gladio grabs the bottle of lube and snaps it open, releasing their cocks to slick his hand. Noct takes over, using both hands as he strokes their erections together. 

“Ever had something inside of you before?” Gladio asks.

“My fingers,” he says. 

“Can’t fuck yourself right with your own fingers,” he tsks. 

He brings his hands around behind Noct, spreading his ass open and bringing a wet finger to his entrance. Noct gasps, rutting his cock against Gladio’s in his surprise. Gladio gives his ass a reassuring squeeze. 

“This is gonna be a lot different,” he warns. 

“I know,” he says breathlessly. 

Gladio looks back at him, nude and gorgeous in the firelight, mounting the Shield’s lap like a throne. It’s going to be different for Gladio too. Noct is unlike any man he’s ever been with, in a thousand different ways. 

“Are you ready?” he asks. 

Noct takes a shuddering breath and he loops his arms around Gladio’s shoulders, lacing his fingers together behind his neck. He nods. 

“Yeah.” 

Gladio presses a single finger inside of him, Noct grunting softly to himself. The Prince’s eyes fall shut and Gladio looks away from his face to take in the sight of his tiny body. 

First of all, Noct is smaller than anyone Gladio has ever fucked. Already disorientingly tight around his finger, Gladio wonders how he’s ever going to fit. 

Secondly, he’s never felt _this way_ about a person he’s fucked before. Whatever way it is that he’s feeling… he’s never then had that person clinging to him, facing him, perfect soft mouth hanging open in submission as Gladio begins the process of filling him, his little cock thick and hard with excitement, his lean thighs quivering where they spread across his lap.

As Gladio’s hand sinks to the last knuckle, Noct opens his eyes with a gasp and Gladio’s gaze snaps back to his face. Gladio’s cock jumps, neglected. 

Furthermore, it’s never been _Noct_ , before. 

“Okay?” Gladio whispers. 

“Yeah.” 

_Noct_. His Prince. The single most important person in the world, to a Shield. 

Gladio wants to give him everything. 

When he begins to slowly pump his finger in and out of him, Noct’s head rolls back, exposing his pretty neck. Gladio can’t help but lean forward, bring his open mouth to Noctis’ pulse. 

He can feel how hard Noct is against his own painfully eager erection. He drags his tongue down in his slender neck, works him open from behind. 

Noct pulls away. 

“I’m not sure I like that,” he says.

“The neck?” Gladio asks. “Or the licking?”

 

Noct doesn’t say anything, so Gladio places an experimental kiss on his collarbone, his sternum, his chest. He hears no protest in Noct’s soft, fast breaths. He lowers his mouth to one nipple, flicks his tongue over it gently. Noct moans, his body tightening impossibly more on Gladio’s finger.

“You like that?” Gladio asks, peering up at his face. Noct’s hands rise from his neck to knot fingers in the back of his hair. 

“Yeah,” he breathes. 

Gladio fingers him, alternating nipples, working him with gentle sucks and light teases of his tongue. He can feel Noct’s muscles begin to relax. The Prince sighs sweetly in his ear, cradling his head to his chest. 

“There you go, Noct,” Gladio says, “now you’re opening up for me.” 

He holds Noct up, one hand under gripping his inner thigh, and slides another finger in beside the first. Gladio brings his mouth back to his chest, and Noct moans raggedly as his body stretches to swallow his fingers. 

Suddenly, Noct’s fingers cinch tight in his hair, and he gasps, eyes wide. Gladio pulls away, looks up at him. 

“You okay?”

“It’s good... it’s just, a lot,” Noct pants loudly, thighs quaking in Gladio’s lap. 

“S’alright,” he says. “To enjoy it, the being overwhelmed.” 

Noct nods slowly, loosens grip in his hair. Gladio brings his mouth back to Noct’s chest, strokes inside of him with two fingers. 

“F-fuck,” he sputters. 

“Means I’m doin’ it right,” Gladio murmurs against his skin.

Gladio pumps his two fingers easily in and out of him, Noct’s body soft and pliant in his lap. Noct moans honestly, pressing his chest forward into Gladio’s tongue, rocking his hips on Gladio’s hand. 

“Love that sound,” Gladio says, sitting up straight. He watches Noct’s face carefully as he brings a third finger to his spread hole, eager to prep him, his need to be inside of him growing more desperate by the moment. Noctis gasps, falling perfectly still in Gladio’s lap as he continues to fill him. He breathes heavily for a few moments and Gladio stops, his fingers halfway. 

Suddenly Noct leans back, one hand braced against Gladio’s thigh, the other rushing to his cock. He pumps himself, head rolling back on his shoulders. He leans onto Gladio’s hand, forcing his fingers deeper inside of him. 

“I wanna cum,” he whines. 

Gladio groans at the erotic display, stunned speechless by the sight of Noct needy and ragged, riding his hand. 

“Not yet,” he manages to say. 

Noct groans, stroking himself faster in protest. Gladio withdraws his hand, and Noct cries out in despair. He takes the Prince’s hips in both of his hands, positions him above his cock. His hands snake around Gladio’s shoulders, his panting mouth falling to his Shield’s neck. 

“Got more to show you, kid.”

Gladio continues to steady Noctis, fingertips nearly touching as his broad hands wrap around his middle. Slowly, Noct sits down, gasping brokenly as Gladio’s cock enters him. His body quakes in Gladio’s grip.

“Fuck,” Noct says against his neck, drags his teeth across his skin. 

Noct continues to lower himself and his body is so amazingly tight on his cock, Gladio releases a choked sob when he tries to breathe. Noct kisses his neck for a few moments, but breaks away with a cry when Gladio is halfway inside of him.

“You got it, Champ,” he whispers.

With his eyes shut and his mouth open, Noct slowly but surely finishes lowering himself into Gladio’s lap. His heart hammers in his chest, his cock throbbing inside of Noct, but he holds still against the impulse to pump into him. After a few moments to adjust, Noct opens his eyes and looks at Gladio.

“You’re so tight,” he says. “Does it hurt?”

“A little.” 

“Want me to stop?”

“I can take it, coach.” 

Gladio growls softly in satisfaction. Noct reaches between their bodies and starts to work his cock with a moan. 

“Nuh-uh,” Gladio says, taking Noct’s wrist and putting his hand back on his shoulder. Before the Prince can complain, Gladio holds him steady in his hands and begins to slowly pump his cock in and out of him. Instantly, Noct begins to sob. 

“You can tell me to stop,” he whispers. 

“Don’t stop!” he cries. 

Grateful, he fucks up into Noct, the pleasure found in his hot passageway making him groan with each thrust. Noct continues to cry, his body limp in Gladio’s hands as he drags his cock back and forth over that bundle of nerves deep inside of him, that sweet spot inside of Noct no one has reached before. He begins to whimper, each note a trophy Gladio will selfishly treasure. Suddenly, Noct’s eyes snap open to stare at him and his body goes rigid in Gladio’s hands, around his cock. His untouched erection shoots cum over Gladio’s stomach. 

“There you go, baby,” he praises. 

Noct is whining while cums, gazing directly back at Gladio with a look of awe on his face. 

“That’s what I wanted to show you,” Gladio tells him. He begins to chase his own orgasm as Noct begins to goes soft in his lap. The Prince collapses into Gladio’s chest, face buried in his neck, trying to catch his breath. 

Gladio slides his hands up Noct’s back, cradles him to his body while he peaks and empties himself inside. 

-

“What’d you think?” Gladio asks. 

They stand unmoving beneath the shower spray, watching each other. Noct reaches a hand out to balance himself on Gladio’s forearm, shuts his eyes and tips his head back into the water. 

He looks serene. Gladio already wants to make him unravel again. 

“Made me feel like I belonged to you,” he says softly. 

“I’ve always belonged to you.”

He leans out of the water, pins Gladio’s with a pair of blue eyes. 

“That wasn’t the question.” 

-

Gladio shuts the light.

Beneath the covers, he rolls onto his side to face Noct, who scoots until they are aligned, chest to back. Gladio kisses the back of his neck, runs his big hands all over Noct’s little body, pulling him closer until the soft mound of his cock nestles between Noct’s thighs. They both groan. 

“Don’t get hard,” Noct mumbles. “I’m sleepy.” 

“I’ll try my best,” Gladio chuckles. 

Of course, all it takes is a few moments of Noct leaning back into him, stretching his legs and tangling them with Gladio’s, the halves of his ass spreading around Gladio’s flesh, for him to start to stiffen. Gladio holds Noct against his cock, grinding himself into Noct’s ass while he reaches around and strokes the Prince with his hand. 

Noct cums easily and falls asleep with his head on his chest, riding the motion of his pumping arm while Gladio finishes himself. 

He holds Noct close. The air is chilly but Noct is warm where they press together beneath the covers. 

What had started as a drunken request for sexual education, would end as the most complicated question Gladio has faced to date, regarding duty and love. 

Tomorrow they head home. 

-

When Gladio wakes up the next morning, it takes him several moments, his eyes combing the snow-covered mountainside, to process what he’s seeing. 

“ _Shit_.”

Noct stirs awake in his arms, rolls off of him while Gladio sits up the bed, stares out at the thick blanket of snow in disbelief. The sky had been promisingly clear when they were out fishing. He hadn’t seen any sign of a change in the weather, but then again, they had been inside fucking the entire second half of the day. 

“May as well stay in bed, then.”

Gladio looks over his shoulder at the Prince, who lays back beneath his gaze, leisurely stroking his cock. 

-

“No, no, don’t send an airship. We’re fine. You’re the one who used to gripe about Prince-Shield bonding. No, we went fishing. Yeah. Can you have Intel figure out whose place this is though? Send them some money, yeah. Okay, put her on— Hey. Yeah, yeah he’s fine, I promise. Look I don’t need you giving me shit too—“

He turns to Noct to say “Iris says hi,” but Noct is still nude on the bed and Gladio has to look away. 

“He says hey. Yes. Miss you too. How was your test? See! Told you! Okay. Yeah, yeah, kid. Be good. Love you. Bye— Yeah, I _got it_ , Dad. Uh-huh. We’ll be home ASAP. Yep. Yessir. Bye.” 

-

They are stuck in the cabin for three more days. 

They eat every combination of fish and potatoes they can come up with. 

They’ve got nothing to entertain themselves aside from each other. They talk, they read, they play cards. Twice a day Gladio barks Noct through a set of pushups and squats due to lack of room in the cozy cabin to spar. 

The rest of the time they fuck. 

Noct digs through the closet upstairs and finds a few flannel shirts Gladio could never hope to fit into. Noct wears them like a dress with nothing underneath, which makes it convenient for whenever Gladio remembers something else he wants to teach the newly awoken Prince. 

He bends him over the kitchen counter and licks him open. He shows Noct how to grab his hair, hold him still and fuck his face.

He feels ravenous. The isolating silence of the snowy mountainside long separated Gladio from his caution, and he finds himself insatiable in the presence of the Prince’s growing sexual confidence. 

Plus, Noct is easy. All Gladio has to do is compliment him, talk about his pretty little cock or how good he is at getting fucked and Noct will present himself, spreading his thighs in the bed, quickly growing hard beneath Gladio’s gaze, his pale skin littered with bruises and burns from his beard, never quite getting a chance to heal before Gladio grabs the Prince by the thigh, hauls him across the bed and buries his face between his legs once more.

That’s one of Gladio’s favorite changes. Snowed into the tiny cabin, with nowhere to go, his typically slippery student suddenly becomes pliant and ragdoll in his hands. Even though his ankle has mostly recovered, Noct lets Gladio pick him up and move him around from bedroom to couch to kitchen counter. Noctis climbs him like a tree, uses him like a steed. 

Gladio holds him up off the floor, spreads his legs and fucks into him, looking out the window at the snow-covered landscape that offered them this transformation, lost in his thoughts until Noct throws his head back on Gladio’s shoulder, cries out in his pleasure once more. 

And even once the sex feels familiar, even once Gladio has memorized the feeling of Noct’s cock in his hand, or the Prince’s tongue on his skin, he continues to surprise his Shield. He grows tender towards Gladio, especially in the times they share when they’re _not_ fucking. Gladio’s heart skips a beat every time Noct runs a hand across his back, or presses a chaste kiss on his shoulder, or calls him _babe_.

To an extent, they keep up the facade of sex-education. Gladio picks the activity and talks Noct through it, his wide blue eyes attentive and twinkling with excitement. And while Noct learns a hundred different ways to entertain himself with a cock, Gladio too gathers information. He stores precious details to his memory bank, like exactly how to suck Noct’s tits to make him beg, or the way Gladio can milk another orgasm from him if he cleans him out with his tongue. He doesn’t just want to be Noct’s _first_ , but he wants to be the _best_ , and with each passing moment, Gladio finds himself longing to be his _only_. 

Instructed to tell Gladio when he’s going to cum, the best the kid can do it babble helplessly whether he’s bouncing on Gladio’s cock or getting plowed into from behind, but Gladio loves it, loves that Noct wants it so hard, wants it hard enough that he’s thinking about nothing, _feeling nothing_ but Gladio inside of him. 

“H-harder, Dio…!” 

Gladio slams into him, dragging his small body across the bed, smashing the headboard against the wall. Noct’s fists are clenched into the sheets; he doesn’t need them. He cums with a sob, Gladio’s cock buried inside of him, the Shield grinding him into the mattress with each deliberate thrust. 

“Damn baby, you like it rough,” Gladio coos, still fucking into him where the Prince lies limp, recently released, and moaning raggedly beneath him. 

“Like that about you,” he continues. “You’re tough.” 

“You made me... this way,” Noct grunts softly. “Now you get to... enjoy it... Big Guy.” 

And enjoy it, he does. 

Rapidly, Gladio becomes accustomed to getting off whenever he’s hard, as obsessed with his cock as Noct becomes. The first time Noct decides he wants to suck it again, he makes the Shield stand naked after his shower, turns around in front of him and shows Gladio his ass, watches over his shoulder as he grows hard at the sight. Smiling, Noct drops to his knees to kiss the head of his cock and say, “for me.” 

But Noct doesn’t even _need_ to try for it. Gladio is occupied, gutting Noct’s catches, and all it takes is a passing thought, the memory of what Noct looked like on his knees, smirking up at him while Gladio streaked his face with cum, and he is painfully hard inside his jeans. 

“Hey kid,” Gladio calls to him. “Lend me a hand.” 

Noct can’t resist, too proud of his new found skills, and Gladio cums rutting his cock over Noct’s flat tongue, his hands bloody and bracing against the kitchen counter. 

Gladio can only conceal his own personal desperation for so long before Noct begins to catch on. Gladio leans into the bathroom mirror, carefully shaving his neck, when Noct slithers out of the shower, his wet skin scalded pink, his naked body on display. Gladio watches him in the mirror for a few moments, before turning around to look at him in person, the task of shaving entirely forgotten. Noct’s eyes rake down his body, to the growing bulge beneath the towel around his waist. 

“You need something from me,” Noct says, his eyes snapping back up to Gladio’s face. 

“That’s right,” he breathes. 

“But you can’t have it unless I say so,” he muses, toweling off, with his back to Gladio, letting him study the muscles in his neck and shoulders while he works. 

“That’s what makes you powerful, Noct.”

The Prince hums to himself and walks out of the room. Instantly, Gladio begins to fret. He tries to ignore his demanding erection, tries to steady his hands when he brings the blade back to his face, but now he’s concerned that Noct has not appreciated their spontaneity, or Gladio misread him, hasn’t been respecting his boundaries— boundaries, as a virgin, Noct may have not even realized he had. 

Gladio emerges from the restroom to look at Noct in the bed. He yawns and sets his phone aside before rolling away. Out the window, all Gladio can see is a thousand stars, the dark cutouts of the mountain ridge, but he knows beneath it the path home appears behind parting piles of melting down. They will not miss their chance to go home tomorrow morning. 

He wonders exactly how much he’s leaving behind. 

Heartache kills his arousal, and by the time Gladio crawls into bed he doesn’t even feel like he can touch Noct. The promise of Insomnia returns to him the shame the snow had buried. In the Crown City, Noct and Gladio must return to Prince and Shield, coach and student, and abandon whatever it was they’ve been pretending to be this week, stranded in this cabin. 

By kissing Noct back, Gladio had made a decision he should have never made, and together they careened down a slippery slope, falling into each other all the while. He can’t help but feel like he failed in his duty this week. Now, Gladio ponders the repercussions of this failure on the sworn object of his protection, on the endurance of his own heart. 

He rolls onto his side, facing the back of Noct’s head and watches his small shoulders rise and fall with his breath. 

Briefly, the Shield tries to imagine chaperoning the Prince to the clubs downtown to help Noct find a guy to fuck that _isn’t_ sworn into his service, tries to imagine waiting at the bar while Noct slithers into a bathroom stall with a stranger.

No one would _ever_ be good enough. 

Suddenly, he turns over in the bed. Laying apart, they look into each other’s eyes until Noct breaks away to trace the path of Gladio’s scar in the dimly moonlit night. 

“Are you okay?” Gladio asks him.

Noct says, “yeah.” 

If he had been the one to ask, Gladio would have said _no_ , but Noct asks a different question instead. 

“Are you…” he begins. 

“Am I what?” 

“Are you just… gonna go back to fucking all those guys?” 

Gladio inhales sharply. He wrestles with the right words. 

“Only if that’s what you want,” he finally says. 

Noct’s eyes widen just slightly, before he cuts them away, rolling onto his back and looking up at the ceiling instead. Gladio waits, but there is no response. 

“Talk to me, kid,” he urges. The pet name softens him enough, and the Prince turns back to Gladio, squinting at him skeptically. 

“I get angry when I think about you touching other guys,” he admits. 

“Okay,” Gladio says, like he doesn’t feel the exact same way.

Several more moments of silence pass before Gladio finds the courage to ask. 

“Noct, how do I make you feel?”

“Safe,” he answers, with no time to think. 

Gladio couldn’t pinpoint what he had been expecting or even hoping for Noct to say, but he could have never anticipated the possessive swell prideful love he feels at his one-word response. Gladio has never had a boyfriend, never wanted one. With amusement, he recognizes why. Being Noct’s Shield had long ago consumed his heart; there would never be room for anything else. 

“You only touch me,” Noct says. “And I’ll only touch you.” 

He smiles. 

“You got it, baby.” 

That night, beneath the covers, they don’t need words. He grows hard when Noct presses against him, and Noct tugs down his boxers and brings Gladio to him, takes him inside with a quiet struggle he voices in the form of whimpering gasps against Gladio’s lips. 

They kiss deeply while Gladio rolls into him, slow, smooth, and safe. Noct wraps his arms and legs around his Shield.

“I’m gonna cum,” Noct says breathlessly. “Gladio, please.” 

Gladio crouches low over him in the bed. He aims his cock for the sweet spot inside of him, the one that makes his Prince explode untouched, the reward of his tight and shaking body on his cock hurling him ashore mere moments behind him. 

He is so good at hitting it now, he may as well have put it there himself. 

-

Noct shuts the cabin door. 

He talks about fishing the entire hike to the car. He walks steadily, his ankle recovered. 

Noct lets Gladio hold his hand while they navigate a particularly rocky part of the path. The sun is gentle and bright on the back of their necks.

When they reach level ground, Gladio moves to let go, but Noct keeps holding. 

Their fingers are still laced as they round the corner to the trail head. 

The car waits, undisturbed. 

-

“Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, Iggy,” Gladio says, taking a second serving of freshly made bread, several more helpings of curry and rice. 

“I figured after living on limited supplies you two would appreciate a bit of home-cooking. Noct was texting me pictures of the meals you prepared.” 

Gladio glares at him. Noct smirks, but won’t meet his eyes. 

“Did what I could,” he replies. “Glad I had a fisherman with me, that’s for sure.” 

“Seven days snowed in with limited amenities… Honestly, I’m surprised the two of you didn’t kill each other,” Ignis says. “Those are prime conditions for Cabin Fever.” 

Gladio tugs on the collar of his shirt, pulls it up over the fading bite in the crook of his neck, not yet ready to address the situation with Ignis, though he knows eventually he must. Gladio is pulled from his thoughts by Noct’s foot bumping against his beneath the table. 

The Prince shrugs. 

“I dunno,” he says. “We pretty much had everything two guys could need.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> An extra big thank you to my betas, rustandstardust and beforethequeen, for reading through this behemoth of a sex romp and supporting me along the way! 
> 
> I am @taketheblanket on twitter ^^


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